1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicular lighting device employed in an automobile or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
With conventional techniques, as vehicular lighting devices, and particularly, as headlamp light sources, halogen lamps or HID (High Intensity Discharge) lamps have become mainstream. In recent years, as substitutions for such conventional lamps, the development of vehicular lighting devices employing a semiconductor light source such as an LED (light-emitting diode), laser diode (which will also be referred to as a “semiconductor laser”), or the like has been advancing.
A technique has been proposed in which multiple light sources emit light in an overlapping manner so as to form a desired light distribution pattern (Japanese Patent Application Laid Open No. 2005-294166). With conventional techniques, in a case in which a given region is illuminated by multiple light sources in an overlapping manner, the on/off operations of such multiple light sources are controlled at the same time based on a common lighting on/off instruction. It can be said that such an arrangement is preferable from the viewpoint of the simplicity of the control operation.
However, there is room for further improvement from the viewpoint of improving the appearance and the impression of high quality, from the viewpoint of improving the visibility of the forward area and the driver's comfort based on the improved visibility, and from the viewpoint of safety.